I’m resending this to include a link to the article.
Video is clogging the Internet?? Sez who? That’s not really what Nemertes
said.
Internet Gridlock
Video is clogging the Internet. How we choose to unclog it will
have far-reaching implications.
By Larry Hardesty
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If
clicking on the title above does not work, paste the link below into your web
browser:
http://www.technologyreview.com/Infotech/20919/
After months of online discussions debunking the various
myths about the Internet being just like a highway or railroad and citing
the limitations of the Nemertes Study (http://www.frankston.com/?name=IPClog)
it’s disappointing to read Technology Review revisiting this old ground
and presenting the Internet as a series of tubes being clogged by users
consuming too much “Internet”.
Do I need to again cite Andy Lippman’s observation
that networking is something we do and not a service we have to buy. The
question is not how do ISPs recover their costs -- the question is why we keep
insisting on funding our infrastructure by charging for services instead of
recognizing that the infrastructure is not a profit center. It’s a means
by which we create value everywhere else in society. If you run the
infrastructure for a profit all you do is assure scarcity.
Creating scarcity is an amazing feat considering the abundance available at
essentially no cost compared to the value.
Today’s Internet is a powerful example and
implementation of the far more general concept of creating solutions by
focusing on the relationships between end points outside the networking without
having to depend on seeking permission or buying special status from every
provider along the way. TR could be helping us understand the future rather
than just reviewing past misunderstandings.